Orbán: ethnically homogenous community as valuable as an ethnically mixed one

Concerning Croatia’s increasing the transit fee for using the Adria oil pipeline, Orbán said that “Hungary wants to pay a fair price and Croatia wants a fair price, too, therefore talks are necessary”. The European Commission has not yet made a position on the matter, he said.

On the subject of China, Orbán said its significance as an investor had increased in recent years and called endeavours to “isolate” China “ill-advised”. “Everything must be done in the interest of the best possible ties between China and Europe, and China and Hungary,” he said. Hungary needs Chinese technology and skills, he added. Answering a question on the Fudan University campus in Budapest, he said building good ties required “a knowledge of eastern economic philosophy” adding that “all university training coming from Asia is an asset”.

Although Hungary disagrees with other EU countries on a number of issues, this does not mean isolation, the prime minister said. Isolation implies that someone stays away from common decision making; Hungary, however, takes part in all decisions that determine the future of the community, he added.
While belonging to a community and therefore not being isolated, Hungary is arguing at full strength against the formation of blocks, Orbán said, noting that whenever military or economic blocks had been formed over the past thousand years, Hungary ended up on the loser’s side. “If there are blocks, we are the eastern periphery of the Western world. If there is East-West cooperation, we are the centre of the world,” he said.

Orbán called the rule-of-law procedure designed by Brussels a failure, saying that rule of law would require clear definitions and standards, ones that are missing from Europe because of the different cultures and traditions.

Orbán said he did not question the good intentions behind the creation of the rule-of-procedure but added that it “is in fact dismantling and disintegrating the European Union”. If the question is raised in the form whether we remain Hungarians and fight, then we will remain Hungarians and fight, he said.

Asked about foreign support for the left-wing media, Orbán said he saw no difference between left-wing parties and the media. It follows, he said, that this support qualifies as political support.

Orbán said “we oppose all sanctions. We are generally against the policy of sanctions. If it were up to us, there were no policy of sanctions at all”. This instrument, he added, could only be used in a narrower, more targeted and more carefully planned way.

Hungary has not supported and would not support the EU packages either in the future but “we cannot veto them at every moment without destroying the community of the EU”, he said.

Concerning the 18 billion euro support for Ukraine, Orbán called it a “bad solution” that the financial assistance was not provided on an intergovernmental basis but through the EU institutions. Hungary did not support the idea of a debt community, he said, adding that finally an intermediate solution was found.

The prime minister attributed inflation to several factors, some of which, he said, may affect the government. These include exchange rate movements, economic productivity and public debt.

“If energy were not a matter of Brussels sanctions, Hungary’s rate of inflation would perhaps fall by half,” he said.

The prime minister said it is hard to understand how any price cap could generate inflation. He added that bankers had protested every price regulation the government had rolled out over the past ten years.

“Price caps were not introduced for bankers, but for people in need,” he added.

Orbán conceded that fluctuations in the forint’s exchange rate form an argument for adopting the euro, but said accession to the euro zone would cause economic growth to slow. “If Hungary’s economy is to grow and there is to be convergence, it’s better to stay outside of the euro zone. If stability is more important than convergence, then it’s better to join,” he explained, adding that he takes the position that convergence is more important.

Orbán said the government does not plan to reduce the value-added tax. The prime minister called it a “key to the success of the Hungarian taxation system that the country has the lowest labour taxes in Europe. The central budget, he said, collects the money it needs through consumption rather than through labour taxes. “This is a tax philosophy and we don’t want to change it,” the prime minister said.

Orbán said the government was not planning to negotiate with the IMF on taking out a loan because the conditions attached to such loans “usually hurt people”. The best money is always the one raised from the money market, he said.

Asked about troubled steel maker Dunaferr, Orbán said the government would try to “save what can be saved”, but added that the situation is “chaotic” as even identifying Dunaferr’s owner is problematic. He added that Dunaferr has about 500 billion forints in liabilities.

Source: MTI